The Really Drawn-out Blog Cabins Decennial Spectacular: #3

Decennial, in case you're not hip to the term, means: 1. relating to or lasting for ten years, or 2. occurring every ten years. It's really a word that we should hear more often. Anyway, this will be my series where I count down my favorites from the last decade, and since I don't plan on it taking 10 years to finish, we're going to go with the second definition.

Previous day's posts:
12/21: Intro/#10: Idiocracy
12/22: #9: Children of Men
12/23: #8: Pan's Labyrinth
12/24: #7: Wall*E
12/26: #6: Memento
12/27: #5: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
12/28: #4: The Royal Tenenbaums

Number 3 on the RD-oBCDS is...

Amélie (2001)
I don't know if it's more apropos to say that director Jean-Pierre Jeunet did a number on me...or that star Audrey Tautou did. Either way, I was smitten on first sight with Amélie, which has ten times the heart, humor and style of just about every Hollywood-produced "romantic comedy" put out (the closest they've come recently was with (500) Days of Summer).

The word "whimsy" is thrown around a lot in cinematic criticism, and it's usually used in a derogatory fashion, as if the mere act of being whimsical demeans the art at hand. I can think of no better argument against that line of thinking than this tale of a melancholy young Parisian who feels not quite lonely, but sans her soulmate, who she just knows is out there.

But Jeunet understood that the journey is much more important than the destination, so he put together an excellent story that unfolds like a treasure map for the viewer, with twists and turns and broken hearts...until finally, the heart is put back together again, and with every viewing, my heart grows even fonder for Amélie...and Amélie.